I am a Children’s Librarian and Head of Youth Services for both of our locations. We are lucky to have 2 public libraries in South Portland!

Hmmm…how long have I been a librarian? I started volunteering at our Branch Library in 2002, I believe. Not too long after that, I became a sub. Over time I got a 10 hour, and then 20 hour, position. It was probably around 2010 that I began a full-time job at the library. It was in 2012, I believe, that I was promoted to Head of Youth Services. That is kind of a long answer to a short question, but I like to share that I started out as a volunteer and slowly made my way to my position now without even realizing all this would happen! You never know what doors are going to open! All of this led to my wanting to be a librarian! I have a degree in Elementary Education and always wanted to be a teacher. Interestingly, that didn’t pan out (I love teachers!), but, as a Children’s Librarian, I still get to work with children and “teach” in other ways. I am currently taking graduate study classes for my Masters in Library Science! It continues to be an interesting and super fun ride!

I am lucky to work with a team of two other women who help with everything and add so much to our library’s collection development. We look to a variety of sources for deciding what to add to the collection – reviews, books we read on our own, bookstores, other colleagues, patrons (which is such a cool and important way to help develop our collection!), and we have the beautiful gift of getting a boat load of books (board books through teen books!) from Kirkus Reviews Children’s Editor, Vicky Smith! We feel like the luckiest people in the world!

Picking a favorite author is super challenging for me! I love picture books and some of my favorite authors of them (there are SO many that I love) are Deborah Freedom, Naoko Stoop, and Elly MacKay.

Check out the debut author-illustrator team of Elizabeth Stevens Omlor and Neesha Hudson with their picture book, Walk Your Dog!

I have wanted to bring in KidLit authors and illustrators for quite some time. Julie Falatko, author of Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book!), Snappsy the Alligator and His Best Friend Forever! (Probably), and Two Dogs in a Trench Coat Go to School, has been an enormous help connecting me with many people in the KidLit world. She has been an SPPL patron for many years and has had 3 book launch events at our library! Beginning with the release of her first book, Snappsy the Alligator (Did Not Ask to Be in This Book!), she has helped set a foundation for SPPL to be a super fun venue for KidLit authors and illustrators! (We have cool authors from the adult world at our library, too!) Since Julie’s first event, we have had other interested creators reach out to us and I’ve also reached out to some. We are very lucky to have many talented authors and illustrators in Maine and I love to support debut authors and illustrators.

Some deciding factors of who we bring in to our library are interest of their work to our community (which is really most creators!), cost, and schedules. And the Number One reason I love having authors and illustrators at our library is the connections our community gets to make with them!

Recommending books to children is very individual, as I’m sure you know. I do often recommend something that I love that I think would be good for most any reader. Of course, they decide if it’s something they want to try or not. If I don’t already know the child’s reading taste, I’ll usually ask what kind of book they like to read and/or the last book they last read. If they don’t have an answer, that is when I usually jump in with a book I’ve loved or someone else has recommended – be it a colleague or patron.

I would love to jump inside so many books! The book I often think of wanting to be in is A Story for Bear by Dennis Haseley and Jim LaMarche. I highly suggest this picture book to people of ALL ages.

I hope I’ve answered all of your questions! Please let me know if I can clarify or add to anything. The attached photo is of me this Summer at Books of Wonder in NYC for my first time! So exciting!!! Thank you so much for reaching out to me! I am enjoying your blog and love your mission! Kids perspectives are the most important!

My title is Library Coordinator – Youth Services. This means my duties include supervising the Youth Division staff, including making sure there’s enough staff to help people at the service desk, overseeing the budget for buying books and other materials for our collection, working with other divisions within the library and other departments in the city, and coordinating programs for youth. I see librarianship as a service profession and enjoy working with the public. I’ve been a librarian 21 years. I was the Head of Teen Services at the Oxford Public Library for 14 years and the Youth Services Librarian at Oak Park Public Library for 4 years before coming to the Southfield Library.

When I was little I always wanted to be a librarian because I loved learning and the best place to do that was our public library. But, I knew it was out of our reach financially. No one in my family had even gone to college, let alone enough college for a Master’s degree. I worked in my middle school and high school libraries as a page, and then put the dream away. I was working at contractor for Ford, doing computer programming, when I finally had saved up enough to go to library school. I started in public libraries and youth services right after graduation.

Choosing books is one of the really enjoyable parts of my job. I read reviews and talk to other librarians for recommendations. I also speak with kids and their parents to find out what they would like in our library.

My favorite author is Stephen King. I started reading his books when I was about 10.

One lesser known author I really like is YA author Tamora Pierce. She writes fiercely independent female characters and her world building is exquisite. There’s always plenty of action, intrigue and magic in a Tamora Pierce book.

When recommending books to anyone, I always begin by asking, “What is the last book you liked?” and “What did you like about that book?” That’s a good jumping off point. From that, I can get an idea of the types of books the person may enjoy reading.

I’m a Youth Services Librarian, so I work for and with kids, teens, and families.

I’ve been a librarian for 10 years.

My undergrad degree is in something called Sociology. It’s the study of society with the aim to help improve it. I worked part-time at a public library while getting my undergrad and it dawned on me that a librarian’s goal is to help people improve their lives. So I decided to pursue being a full-time public librarian.

There are a number of ways I pick books for my library! The first is based on recommendations from kids and families. I also follow a huge amount of book lovers on social media, so they help keep me up-to-date with more (potentially) popular titles. But I also use book review magazines.

My favorite chapter book author is Shannon Hale. There is nothing she has written that I haven’t loved. She’s so funny! I also love Dav Pilkey. Captain Underpants is 100 % awesome.

A few lesser known authors: I love April Pulley Sayre! She does picture books of nature and her photographs are amazing. I also like Natalie Llyod and Shelia Turnage who both write chapter books.

It’s hard to recommend books without knowing what books a kid has read in the past. My first question is always: “What book did you remember last reading?” Then I ask what he remembers liking (or not liking, which is equally important!) from the book. Those answers help to clue me in to some other books he may like.

Name of Library (and website if it has one): Dearborn Public Library, specifically the Henry Ford Centennial Library (we have three locations). Dearbornlibrary.org

What kind of librarian are you?

I’m an Adult Services Librarian. That means I generally work with Adults, though certainly not limited. Each librarian in my department has a lot of varied responsibilities and we try to have one back up librarian in the event someone is hit by a bus, or just absent.

The collection that I purchase for is FICTION (very exciting) and this includes our genre fiction as well (Mystery & Science Fiction/Fantasy). I also purchase and manage our book club kits. Each kit includes ten copies of the title, discussion questions and background information about the book for groups to discuss.

When I’m not on the reference desk or managing the collection, I have no problem keeping busy. I supervise our Pages (bookshelvers). I also sit on two committees: Social Media & Marketing. A few days in the week, I tweet from our library account and this is how I found you☺! There are a lot of small details to the day-to-day of being a librarian that I really enjoy because each day is unique, and I am constantly learning. Learning is truly forever.

How long have you been a librarian?

I have been a librarian for eight years, and only two of those have been in Dearborn.

What lead you to wanting to be a librarian?

I think I always wanted to be a librarian, though for a while I thought it was reserved for someone much smarter than me. It took working with a few really great librarians to realize that they have the tools to research and find information without having to be walking encyclopedias. They also encouraged me to go to library school.

How do you pick books for your library?

I follow book reviewers (like yourself!) and plenty of publications such as Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, Foreword Reviews, Kirkus and Lithub(online). I also generally purchase items that patrons place a suggestion for through our website. Besides new releases, I try to replace worn items in our collection and might order more copies if there are a lot of requests, or the book was recently made into a movie.

Do you have a favorite author?

So many! There’s no way I could pick one. A few off the top of my head are Toni Morrison, Rebecca Solnit, Louise Erdrich, Marilynne Robinson and Adrienne Rich, all of whom I didn’t read until I was in college. When I was around your age, I was obsessed with The Chronicles of Narnia, Matilda, Peter Pan and Harriet the Spy. The cool thing for you is kid lit is now a powerhouse and there are more writers than ever that are publishing across reading levels.

How do you decide what book to recommend to a specific kid?

Such a good question, often I leave the professionals (our youth librarians) to recommend books for kids, so I’ll refer them to our children’s desk. If I can tell the kid is looking for something at a higher reader level, I start by asking them to tell me about the last good book they read and why they enjoyed it. There are a few elements that I try to listen for: Story, Character, Setting, and Language. A well-known librarian named Nancy Pearl who has written a lot about reader’s advisory calls these, “The Four Doors”. If you’re not already familiar with this, you might find it interesting as a book reviewer.

What kind of librarian are you?:My position is Serials & Electronic Access Librarian at an academic library. This means I am responsible for the journals and magazines we subscribe to and I also make sure patrons can access our electronic journals and the information about what we have is accessible.

How long have you been a librarian?: I finished my Masters of Library Science in Summer of 2012, started my first librarian job Summer of 2013.

What lead you to wanting to be a librarian?: I have a degree in English and have always enjoyed reading and writing and analyzing literature. I attended an information session at IUPUI in Indianapolis, Indiana and the description of librarian work as “helping connect people with information” sounded like this would be a good fit for me.

How do you pick books for your library?: Most of the books I select are specifically for university departments, sometimes for new programs. I spend time looking at lists of recommended titles from vendors, and also Publisher’s Weekly and other selection magazines. Sometimes a book title seems interesting to me so I will read the description to determine if the book might be a good fit for our library. I also pay attention to new and emerging topics in the academic departments I select for and try to find books that speak to these topics so students and faculty can stay up to date in their fields.

Do you have a favorite author?:This is a hard question! I think my current favorites are Victoria (V.E.) Schwab and Leigh Bardugo. I have also loved C.S. Lewis since I was a kid.

How do you decide what book to recommend to a specific kid?: I always ask if there is a topic or subject they are very interested in right now, and I also like to ask if they have a favorite book or one they have read many times. Then I can recommend something similar, or ask if they might be interested in something very different.

My name is Jennie Rothschild and I work for Arlington Public Library (https://library.arlingtonva.us/) Arlington is just across the river from Washington, DC.

I have been a librarian for 11.5 years. I’ve been many types of librarian, including a children’s librarian and a branch manager, but right now I am a collection development librarian. That means I work on deciding which books and other materials the library should have. I work with a team of collection development librarians and I mainly focus on books for younger kids (babies through about 2nd grade.)

I’ve always loved reading and books and when I was in high school, I thought I wanted to own my own bookstore. (I worked at a bookstore in high school.) When I got to college, I had work-study (where they give you a job to help you pay for schooling). Most people do work study in the dining hall, but because I had worked at a bookstore, I got to do mine in the library. I loved my job and decided I wanted to keep doing it as my career.

Picking books for the library is really fun. I read many trade journals like Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Horn Book, School Library Journal, and Kirkus, which are magazines full of book reviews. (I also review for a few of them, which is fun.) I read all of the magazines and see what the reviews say about the book–not only if it’s good or not, but also what it’s about. Is it something I think people in my area will want to read? Because I buy for multiple locations, I am able to get most books–the hard part is figuring out how many copies to get! Is a book good, but probably won’t be that popular, so I should only get 1? Or should I get 10 because everyone will want it? I also look at the holds list closely. If I’m unsure how many to buy, I’ll probably only buy 1 or 2, but then I watch the holds list so if I see a lot of people want it, I can quickly get more copies. I also take suggestions! Most libraries have a form that patrons can fill out to ask the library to buy a book. I take patron suggestions very seriously.

I don’t think I can pick just 1 favorite author– I have so many! For children’s books, I really like Grace Lin, Meg Cabot and Jan Thomas.

If you haven’t read any Grace Lin books, I really like them, especially her series that starts with Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Ann Bausum writes great nonfiction. Some of her books are better known but people don’t always realize that these great books were all written by the same person!

Deciding which book to recommend to a specific kid is really fun and one of my favorite parts of the job. The first thing I do is ask a bunch of questions so I can learn what the person usually likes in a book and what they seem to be in the mood for. With kids, I’m also trying to figure out how hard of a book they’re most comfortable reading. After that, I think through all of the books I’ve read and the books I’ve heard about and haven’t read to see which might be the best match. I like to do this part while walking by the books in the library, because it reminds me of things I may have forgotten. When I start recommending a book, I look to see if the person seems interested or not, which helps me decide other books to recommend. I always recommend a bunch, and I tell people to check out more books than they can read– life’s too short and too full of good books to waste time reading bad books, so if I want to be sure people have extras in the case the book they’re reading isn’t one they like. The best part is when the kid comes back and tells me which books they liked and which ones they didn’t, because then I can get new ideas of what to suggest they read next!

What kind of librarian are you? I am the Teen Librarian for the Library.

How long have you been a librarian? I have officially been a librarian for a little over a year, but I have a worked in public and academic libraries since 2005.

What lead you to wanting to be a librarian? I started out as a page in college and that experience led me to see how important public libraries are to society, especially in lower-income communities. Books and databases are important aspects of libraries, but we also provide computer access, Wi-Fi, a safe (and warm) space, entertainment, free fun and educational programs, storytimes, etc. If you cannot afford books, a computer, preschool for your children, or internet access to apply for a job, you have very limited options. Public libraries allow everyone to access these services that would otherwise be limited to only wealthy populations. As I heard Cory Doctorow say last year, libraries are one of the last places where you don’t have to get out your wallet just to be there.

How do you pick books for your library? I read tons of book reviews from School Library Journal, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, etc. I’m more likely to buy books with positive reviews, but that’s not the only thing I keep in mind. I also try to keep up with trends and what my population enjoys. I’ve been asked a lot for horror books in the last year, so I always keep my eye out for new horror or scary titles. Lastly, but most importantly, I want the teen collection to reflect readers and offer them glimpses into other people’s lives (the windows and mirrors concept). When reading reviews, I look for books with diverse characters and storylines. I want to add to our collection stories that have not yet been heard before.

Do you have a favorite author? Impossible question to answer! I am currently obsessed with Angie Thomas and Erika L. Sanchez. I cannot recommend I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Sanchez enough! I have also had a life-long love affair with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I believe One Hundred Years of Solitude is the perfect novel. Oh, and I am totally suffering from Ferrante Fever. I love the Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante. What character development!

How do you decide what book to recommend to a specific kid? My last supervisor was great at reader’s advisory and she would often ask people what was the last book they read that they really enjoyed. I’ve started to do this as well and I find it’s really helpful. Once they think of a book, if I am familiar with the genre, I’ll recommend some new, similar titles they might like. If I’m unsure of the title or genre, I’ll use the Novelist database to find similar books or authors. I also work with some really great children’s librarians, so I rely a lot on my coworkers to suggest titles as well.